Catching Up With Castlevania's Composer, Pt. 2

The second part of our massive interview with goth-rock maestro Michiru Yamane.

While I was in Tokyo this year, I was able to arrange a meeting with one of my all-time favorite video game musicians, former Konami composer Michiru Yamane. While she's no longer working on the Castlevania franchise, which currently rests in the hands of Spanish developer Mercurysteam, Yamane remains active in games, most recently producing the excellent soundtrack to quirky all-girls fighting game Skullgirls. We published the first part of our extensive interview yesterday, discussing her roots and inspirations as a musician, so be sure to check out that piece before delving into the Castlevania-centric second half below!

Special thanks to Ms. Yamane and to 8-4 Ltd., who arranged and interpreted our interview.

1UP: I'd like to talk more about Castlevania, since that seems to be what you're best known for. How did you first become involved with the Castlevania series?<

Michiru Yamane: I moved to the Tokyo office, and the first title I worked on was Vampire's Killer [Castlevania Bloodlines], for the Mega Drive.

1UP: Specifically, how did you become involved with that game? Was it assigned to you, or is it something where you said, "That seems interesting, I'd like to work on it"?

MY: Back when I was in Kobe for three years, I made music for Goemon and Twinbee and some other series they had on the MSX. Maezawa-san was creating the Castlevania series, and there were other composers there as well working on Castlevania back then. After I moved to Tokyo... As far as I can remember, that's when they first created a Castlevania title in the Tokyo studio. So one of my bosses said, "Okay, she'd be perfect to create Castlevania music." Of course, I wasn't going to turn that down.

1UP: How familiar were you with the Castlevania series at that point? Obviously you worked for the company that produced it, but did you spend a lot of time playing the games or talking to the people who worked on them?

MY: I already knew a lot about the series when I started working on it. When I was learning how to program and all that after I first entered the company, we were using tracks that the older generation created, which were like "Vampire Killer" and "Bloody Tears." We used those songs to practice how to program, and I'd admire those tracks while we were working on it. So the pressure was on. When they decided that they wanted me to create tracks for the new game, I was in the elevator one time. A guy from the sales division who I didn't even know came up to me and said, "This series is known for great music, so make sure you keep that up." There was a lot of pressure.

1UP: Were you given really strict guidance when you were composing for Bloodlines, or were you given more or less free rein?

MY: I don't remember there being strict guidelines, but there was a lot of unspoken pressure. You know what kind of music Castlevania requires, so you have to make sure to create that kind of catchy, great action music. That kind of silent pressure was on me. There weren't specific guidelines, but... I listened to all the songs from the previous game, and I was studying a lot on my own so I wouldn't fail everybody's expectations.

1UP: Do you feel relieved knowing that some of the tracks, like "Iron Blue Intention," are kind of considered standards now?

MY: Yes, I'm very happy. "Iron Blue Intention," I originally created that for the Mega Drive, but after that the team was asking me to create a sort of self-arranged version of it. Because of that, I started to notice that the song was starting to stick with people. I was really happy to see that.

1UP: I know Konami has put out a lot of Castlevania arrange albums and live performances and Perfect Battle collections and things like that. Did you ever perform on any of those?

MY: I performed at the GDC show twice. In 2006, I played the timbales, and in 2007 I played the pipe organ. Both times, I played a song there along with a professional orchestra. After I left Konami, a fan organized a Castlevania concert, so I played the piano and the timbales at that event as well. The people who organized the concert got approval from Konami. That was also with a youth orchestra.

1UP: Back to Vampire Killer... I feel like the sound of that game was very different from the one that had come before it, Super Castlevania IV for Super NES. Can you talk about that? Or did that previous game not really factor into your considerations?

MY: All I can say is that that was the result of my own composing, putting my best into the compositions. Before I worked on Vampire Killer, I was involved in titles that had a strong rock flavor to them. But personally, I enjoyed classical music as well. That's the kind of music I was familiar with. I did listen to rock music, but it wasn't my favorite thing to listen to all the time. So when I composed the tracks for Vampire Killer, I probably wasn't able to give that full-on rock flavor to it, which might be why it ended up having a different tone. But that tone came from my own personality, so that's part of what led to the style on Symphony of the Night.

1UP: Vampire Killer was... It was very different for the series, because it was the first Castlevania game that didn't take place in the castle or around the castle. It was set all around the world. How did the international flavor of the game shape your approach to the music?

MY: I'm trying to dig up the memories of when I was creating those tracks... I remember really clearly that the stage for "Iron Blue" and the stage for "Sanctuary" were very unique. I was trying to catch the uniqueness of those locations and put that into the compositions.

1UP: You said that the style of Vampire Killer helped you develop your style for Symphony of the Night. Can you talk more about that?

MY: Castlevania is a series that has a very strong atmosphere. And also, it's a series that, before I got involved with it, there were very famous songs that even now could be considered some of the best in gaming history. So I'm not sure if I was thinking, "Okay, I have this great thing going on that I have to carry on and follow in the footsteps of history." I'm not sure if I was thinking about that much. But what I always tried to do and I always thought was important is to observe what's in each stage and bring that into the essence of the music. Maybe the reason why the sound changed a lot is because the hardware had evolved, and the graphics had evolved as well. Being able to see so much more going on in the stage gave me more inspiration to create better music. That might be one of the reasons why the music had changed.

1UP: Was Symphony of the Night the first game you'd worked on that had yellowbook [streaming] audio instead of having to be broken down for a sound chip?

MY: Yes, Symphony of the Night was my first experience with the PSX, which used yellowbook audio. Up until the PSX, like when I was using the Mega Drive, to compose tracks I had to do what I was talking about earlier, bringing the track into the hardware, which required real programming skills. But for the PSX, you could almost perfectly replicate whatever you recorded. If you did an orchestra recording, you could just pull that into the game. Or if you were just humming a tune to yourself, you could pull that into the game as well. You could almost perfectly bring in whatever you made. During those times, recording orchestrated music and putting that in your game became a very popular thing to do.

1UP: Did working in that format impose different kinds of challenges to working with the older, more limited systems?

MY: Before the PSX, with the Mega Drive and all that, it was an effort to bring the song into the hardware. But because of that, I was able to learn a lot about how sound works. It was a very useful experience for me.

1UP: It seems like there's a very eclectic sound to Symphony of the Night. You have intense heavy metal in places like the area leading up to the clock tower, but then in the Long Library, it's almost like chamber music, with the harpsichord and violin. Can you talk about the influences you drew on, and the thinking behind creating such a varied soundtrack?

MY: For the heavy metal part, that's kind of the basics of Castlevania. I already knew I was going to do that for things like the boss fights. I knew I was going to make some hard rock and heavy metal tracks for those kinds of stages. But then there's the library and the church, where the graphics were so beautiful that I wanted to have some different kinds of music that matched what I saw. The most important thing for me was to catch that atmosphere of each stage, and fit it into the music I composed. That's how the music turned out to have that kind of variety.

After I'd compose a track, I would go to the team and have them listen to it. Some people would say, "Well, it doesn't match the Castlevania series..." But I remember that Igarashi-san said, "Okay, this might be a little different, but a difference might be a good thing. Why don't we just try it out?"

Also, when I saw the illustrations Ayami Kojima had made, it was just so beautiful. I felt like I wanted to add some variation like that into the game. Those illustrations were really inspiring. And because of the hardware changing, the graphics that we could display were very different and very beautiful. When you combine that with how I didn't have to work with so few channels anymore... I felt like I wanted to create a lot of different kinds of music. That's how Symphony of the Night became what it is.

1UP: This isn't necessarily related specifically to the music, but I'd heard that Symphony of the Night was regarded as a kind of side-story to the Castlevania series, and that Konami was really more interested in exploring the 3D game for the Nintendo 64. Is there any truth to that? And if so, was that something that affected the direction of the game and how you created music for it?

MY: Yeah, I do remember this title being kind of viewed as a side-story. That's why you were also able to use a sword, not just the whip. During the development, everybody wanted to try something new with it. Now that I think about it, there were some people who were against the idea of changing things so much. They were worried about core fans leaving the series and all that. But since this title was being made in Tokyo, while the other games were being made down in Kobe... There was this sense of, "Well, is the Tokyo office going to be able to do it?" There was that kind of a concern within the company, and that was why they decided to make it a sort of side project.

During development, there were a lot of people that weren't sure about the game. When they first released it, Igarashi-san and everybody else who was involved didn't think it would become something that everyone remembers so much. When we first created the game, in fact, we were only planning to release it in Japan. We only had Japanese voices and all that. So we were able to complete and release the game, and then I took some time off. When I came back to the office, all of a sudden the company had already made the decision to translate it into English. So they had Japanese voice actors recording the English voices, without proper direction or anything. Even until now, people aren't so sure about the quality of the English... [laughs] But then I'll bet you're already familiar with what I'm talking about.

1UP: [laughs] It's considered a classic, but maybe not necessarily for the right reasons.

MY: Yeah, I'm starting to remember... [laughs] Everybody already put their all into it, and they were finished. When the company came back and said, "We want an English version," they were all like, "...really?" It seems like the company wanted it to come out really quickly, so they had to hurry. I remember going to an agency for Japanese voice actors and rushing through the whole job. Also, in addition to the voices for all the cinematics, we had to record battle voices and weapon names and things like that. I remember that being a very rushed process.

1UP: When the Dracula X Chronicles came out for PSP, they re-recorded the voices, and people were actually disappointed, because they took away the originals. I guess people had really grown fond of them over time.

MY: That's very interesting...

1UP: You continued to work on Castlevania games after that. Not all of them, but a lot of the ones that had that same feel and style as Symphony of the Night. Did you find it difficult to go back and reprise a lot of themes and concepts in those games without your music becoming repetitive?

MY: I listened to a variety of music in those days. I'd listen to ethnic music, or local music from a lot of different countries. Especially percussion. I'd try to use special kinds of percussion. Or I'd listen to different movies and see if I could refer back to any of those. I tried to study a lot of kinds of music, so the music I created myself wouldn't become simple or too repetitive.

1UP: What made you decide to go independent and leave Konami?

MY: After 20 years, I decided to quit Konami and become an independent. My reasons were... Well, one reason was I wanted to create music for other media, not just for games. I also wanted a freer lifestyle. The hours we worked were pretty long, and commuting wasn't that easy here in Tokyo. I was also considering my age... I felt like that kind of lifestyle was getting to be a pain. Also, I felt like as a creator, having a freer way of life would be better for me. When you're creating something, sitting at a desk in front of your keyboard at a specific time isn't usually the right atmosphere. I felt like could find a greater range in my music that way. I did the math, and I realized I was in my 20th year at Konami. So I said, "20's a good round number" and I decided to go independent. But I've always been a creator inside Konami, so even if I'm no longer an employee, part of the in-house staff, I can still be a contractor. I'm sort of a day-to-day temp worker now... [laughs] Also, I wanted to stay close at home with my cat. He's super cute.

1UP: It seems like around the time you left Konami, the Castlevania series started to go through a lot of upheavals. I know Mr. Igarashi teased an Alucard sequel that never came to light. Are you able to offer any insight to what happened with the series and the direction it's taken since then?

MY: Yeah, I'd like to know what happened myself. As an individual, I felt like... I had been working on the series for a long time, and I felt like I might enjoy trying something else. As a company, too, that might have been how the thought process went -- "Maybe we should use some new people to work on the series." Maybe the company's experimenting now as well. But it seems like there's a lot of fans out there who want a Castlevania from Igarashi-san with Ayami Kojima's illustrations, and my music. If that ever happens, of course I'd want to be a part of it. I'd love to create a different... something in the Castlevania world and atmosphere, but with a different kind of taste. I'd love to provide the fans with a different flavor of music.

1UP: Besides Skullgirls, what have you been working on lately? What kind of projects have you had?

MY: I've been doing music for a lot of commercials, internationally. One of them was... Do you know what Pocari Sweat is? It's a drink. I worked on their Chinese commercials, and also for the Middle East. A gas company image commercial for Qatar. I worked on some movie music, too, a Japanese movie called "Koi no Tsumi." It's a kind of erotic action movie. I wasn't in charge of the whole thing, but I was a part of a team. There were other people composing music for it. I did music for Otomedius, another game. And an iPhone application.

1UP: Do you find composing for non-game media is different from composing for games? Is it something you enjoy more than games, or would you like to do more work in games again?

MY: Of course, I love creating music for games, so I want to keep on doing that. But the most recent work I did was creating music for a French TV series. What I did is, I created the opening theme and the ending theme for this show, and I had a lot of fun doing it. It'd be great if I could continue doing that kind of work as well.

1UP: How did you get involved in the Skullgirls project?

MY: That was through 8-4. [Note: this interview was coordinated by 8-4 Ltd. and conducted at their offices]

1UP: OK, I know those guys. [laughs]

MY: 8-4 got in touch with me and asked if I'd be willing to create tracks for this fighting game.

1UP: Are you interested in working with more independent studios like that, or do you prefer working with more established companies like Konami?

MY: I'm open to both, of course. As a creator, it's the same process. The business part, signing papers and all that, might be different, but when I'm working on the music it's all the same.

1UP: Is there any particular work, when you look back over the past 20 or 25 years of game composition and other work that you've done, is there any one thing you look back on and say, "This is a really spectacular thing that I did, and I hope that everything I do can be that good"?

MY: Are you looking for a title name, or...?

1UP: Well, anything you look back on and think, "This is the essence of what I want to do as a creator."

MY: If I were to say it in one word, I want to create music that leaves a memory inside of people, alongside the visuals. So it doesn't have to be games. It could be movies, commercials, TV, whatever. That's what I want to do.

If I were to look back and think of something I did in the past that had that feel to it, I'd pick Symphony of the Night.

Comments (7)

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We need a petition or something

Because there are obviously a lot of Castlevania fans who want this trio back on these games. Sort of like the power trio behind Final Fantasy. Strange coincicence now that I think about it, Director, Artist, Composer.

Count me in...

as one of the fans who want to see a Castlevania game from IGA with art design by Ayame Kojima and music by Michiru Yamane.

Nice interview. It was humorous to see that Konami considered Symphony of the Night to be a side project, and it turned out to be a defining game in the series. Maybe they should give IGA a shot at another "side project".